St. Patrick's Day festivities wheel through Utica

Saturday

UTICA — Fire trucks, bagpipes and people wearing all shades of green filled Genesee Street on Saturday for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

A strong wind and temperatures in the low 30s kept bystanders huddled up, but excited, for the 10 a.m. parade start.

“It’s been months (of preparation),” said David Wood, parade director and the Great American Irish Festival co-director. “We start in January for the parade applications … we start gathering our volunteers … and (did) hours, hours and hours (of planning).”

Leading the parade was Grand Marshal John Sullivan who, in a first time for a grand marshal, was pulled down the street by a horse and buggy.

Following Sullivan were roughly 120 entries, Wood said. They included numerous local officials and organizations that handed out candy and waved to people on the sidewalk.

There was even Saint Patrick himself, pulled on a truck trailer, waving to the crowd.

“All the work is paying off right now,” Wood said.

Midway through the parade queue, the Stevens-Swan Humane Society was transporting a group of people and dogs on a green-bedecked float. The dogs were cowled in blankets.

Broccoli said the society has been in the parade as long as she’s been with the society — at least 12 years.

“(The parade is) a great time, and we support it every year,” she added. “We love (it).”

Green beer

The parade ended shortly before noon, but the fun continued on Varick Street.

O’Donnell’s Pub & Grill, Lukins and Sickenburger Lane were brimming with people. The Celtic Harp had a line almost a block long with people trying to enter tents the bar raised for the day.

Deerfield residents Richard and Sheila Bishop had just arrived to the daytime nightlife event. They came from home, where they’d stopped after the parade to warm up.

They’re both Irish — 50 percent and 100 percent, respectively — and they take St. Patrick Day seriously.

“(We celebrate) with green beer, and the corn beef and cabbage is in the crock pot right now,” Sheila Bishop said.

“And as much Irish music as we can find,” Richard Bishop added. “And if we don’t have it around here, we’ll listen to it at home.”

‘We all come together’

Earlier in the day, as fire trucks blared sirens near The Stanley Center for the Arts, James Meyers was finishing a bit of his green beer.

He was wearing a leprechaun outfit, and his false orange beard twisted in the cold. He and his friends, dressed just as enthusiastically, were having a good time — and that was the point, Meyers said.

“One day a year Utica comes together to celebrate — no matter what nationality you are, or where you’re from, we all come together and we’re Irish for a day,” he said. “It’s just beautiful to see because everybody just gets along and we put our differences aside and we have a great time.”

Contact reporter Joseph Labernik at 315-792-4995 or follow him on Twitter (@OD_Labernik).

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